Wood Stove Decathlon Finalist: Intercontinental

The world's brightest wood stove designers and manufacturers will compete in the Wood Stove Decathlon Nov. 16 to 19 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The competition challenges 14 finalists to build next-generation wood stoves that are low-emission, high-efficiency, innovative, and affordable. We wanted to hear more about these stoves in the builders' own words. Here we learn about an unusual approach to building a masonry stove from Connecticut-based builder Rod Zander. (Don't forget to vote for your favorite! Popular Mechanics will present a People's Choice Award to the finalist that earns the most votes.)

What's so special about your stove? Give me your elevator pitch.

My 2B4W woodstove is a new type of masonry heater. Formed from two used steel oil barrels stacked on top of one another, the stove stores heat in its inner-high-density firebrick. It provides the pleasing radiant heat of traditional masonry stoves, and it has additional aesthetic and renewable features while also maintaining cost efficiency and greatly decreasing emissions. Composed of recycled materials and available with the option of a computer-controlled combustion system, this model is both innovative and practical for locations worldwide.

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What was the thought process behind using recycled oil barrels for your stove's structure?

It's philosophical. It's a juxtaposition of using the symbol of oil as a receptacle for a high-tech masonry heater. It's a political statement in that way. But it also means that though the internals of the stove are of the highest technology for masonry heater design and heat exchange, the cost of the stove is much lower. In a typical masonry stove, 50 percent of the cost is for the facing and the structural material. What we did is find a low-cost solution for the exterior that also provides structural integrity. The barrels will accept the typical expansion and contraction while also holding everything in the interior in place. Inside the barrels is close to 3000 pounds of brick; the barrels act as a container.

Who do you think will benefit most from this approach?

It's really looking at several different users. It's possible this can be built entirely by hand using firebrick or even regular brickjust give someone with skills a set of plans and they could build this anywhere in the world from recycled parts. In developing countries, it could be a very low-cost solution. Another approach is it could be made of modular components cast out of refractories, which are then assembled. You could leave the exterior of the barrels as they are, or you could paint it. You could also buy recycled stainless-steel barrels, which I think would look absolutely gorgeous in a New York loft for a retro-industrial look. It completely changes the concept of what a stove is and adds something completely new into the mix. People will have to step back and say: Wow, what is this?

Can you explain your stove's computer-controlled combustion system?

They've been using these in Europe for close to 20 years, and I've been using them for at least five years. It monitors the combustion process with a thermocouple and recognizes when the major part of the fire is done. It then steps down the air supply going into it, and eventually shuts the supply off. The convenience is wonderful; it maximizes your use of fuel, so you don't have to be educated to know when to shut the stove down. It shuts it down for you at the appropriate time, so you use less fuel and you get more heat out of it.

So having automation helps reduce user error. Isn't user error a big part of the problem when it comes to burning wood improperly and causing pollution?

The issue in the U.S. is oftentimes you're dealing with a metal stove that can neither burn the wood hot enough nor store heat. Or it gets too hot and you can't live with it. So they reduce the combustion efficiency in order to have a lower combustion temperatureand that causes a problem with emissions. Then they add other controls to try to burn it off as it's going up the chimney. So the control system for a metal stove is very different from that of a masonry heater. With my masonry heater, I'll load 35 pounds of wood and ignite it, and it burns at a high rate, and then burns out in an hour and a half. But all the wood and gases are converted to heat. There's no creosote and there's no smoke. There's a little soot and fly ash, but the heat and exhaust will be stored in 35 feet or more of channels of masonry before it goes into the chimney.

Where do you think the stove industry in the U.S. needs to go from here?

I think the first thingand this is why this competition is being held on the National Mallis to try to get some political traction. Around 75 to 80 percent of wood pellets manufactured here are exported to Europe. We're selling our high-energy fuel and importing high-cost oil. There's no energy policy in the U.S. that encompasses wood use for heat. That needs to be addressed. Now there's this huge lobby that wants to outlaw wood burning entirely, for health reasons. The reality is, with masonry heaters and proper combustion, you don't have health concerns like you do with old outdoor boilers or old unregulated stoves that were made prior to certified stoves. They are what's causing pollution. Don't outlaw the clean ones. Provide some incentives to get rid of the old polluting ones.